Out Of Place.
by Ben Myatt
Summary: the final story in the "Angels and Fairytales" trilogy. it helps to have read the other two first! ^_^


Disclaimer: I own Digimon. No I don't! FOOLED YA! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! *Falls off chair.*

…I'm good! I'm Good!

Note: this is the third and final in this little series of short Daikari stories. The first two are, respectively, "Angels an Fairytales" and "Maybe" this is the LAST ONE. Please DO NOT request that I write another one.

Dedicated to: Fuchan and KC. Infectious insanity is always the most fun variety.

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Out Of Place.

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By Ben Myatt. 

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What am I doing here? 

Why, after all this time, am I sitting in this small Café, in the middle of Odaiba, looking across at someone who hasn't even appeared in my life for at least six years?

Hikari Kamiya. 

For six long years, her face has haunted me, a mocking visage of all that could never be mine. And of how much I had lost since I sealed myself off from the world that had once meant so much to me. 

And now, as I look across the small table at her, I see something of that world that never would leave me alone. 

Hope.

Ironic, isn't it, that hope is the symbol of the person who hurt us both so much?

Takeru Takaishi. 

In truth, I never blamed him for being the one who won Hikari's heart. I suppose you could say that the better man won, but when I looked into that face, surrounded by that blonde mop of hair, I saw something that sparked up impotent anger in me.

A small, yet noticeable grain of contempt. 

As he had wrapped his arm around Hikari's waist, I could see that look of satisfaction. For the briefest of moments, I had wanted to drive my fist through that smirk.

But I hadn't. I had simply turned and walked away, out of their lives.

A couple of years later, I happened to walk into a bookshop, and see a novel on the shelf. It chronicled the adventures of two generations of the Digidestined. Both of which he had been involved in. The authors name was embossed on the cover. Takeru Takaishi.

Again, there was the clinch of it. 

Takeru was always the paragon. The knight in shining armour, To Hikari's golden princess. Hell even their Digimon were poetic together. The two shining angels.

Sometimes, it made my blood boil. Hope and light. They went so well together. How could I ever hope to compete? All I had was courage, friendship and Miracles, none of which offered anything to the two star-bound Digidestined. They seemed to be fated for each other from that very moment Takeru had walked into a classroom on a sunny spring day.

But now, what has happened? Did fate make a mistake? 

Somehow I doubt it. But fate, at times, does seem to be remarkably short-sighted

Fate lives from day to day. And we are all bound to whatever her web should weave. 

And yet, I still cannot shake off that imperceptible feeling that I am out of place in this world. I still fell like I should walk off into the darkness, alone.

Is that my fate?

To never be part of the fairytale?

To never be an angel, but merely the most terrible of sinners?

Who knows?

Who cares?

And so why am I sitting at this round table, looking down into a cup of coffee, desperately trying to avoid the gaze of the woman sitting opposite me?

Maybe fate isn't quite as inexorable as I had always presumed.

And maybe she is just as fickle, as I had always known. 

And with one hell of a crooked sense of humour.

I read Takeru's book. And when I reached the end, which told of the fates of the Digidestined, there was merely a small note. It told of how one of the Digidestined had left, and abandoned all contact with the others. How he had walked out from a party when two other had announced their feelings for one another.

How he had disassociated himself from them. 

I had looked down to the bottom of the page, expecting to see two words, which sealed that fate in concrete, and had been startled to find that they weren't there. 

There was no "The End", that smug little phrase which seems to disguise the content of a book as gospel truth. 

So maybe my fate hasn't been decided just yet, and maybe there is a glimmer of hop at the end of the darkest tunnel of my life.

Not just yet.

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They sit opposite each other, hardly daring to look up. Steam gently rises from the cups of coffee in their hands.

Hikari Kamiya, and Daisuke Motomiya.

Both are wrestling with internal pain, and both are linked to each other by that pain. Finally, they wrench their eyes away from the brown liquid in their mugs, and look at each other. 

What they see startles them. In Daisuke's eyes, there is a soft light, dulled by the edge of pain, yet brighter than it has been for the past few years, since he allowed himself to fall into a pit of despair.

In contrast Hikari's eyes are deep wells of sadness, of a pain that has yet to be overcome. Yet even in those brown irises there is a slight glimmer of something.

Maybe it's hope, and maybe it's something else entirely. 

And so they sit opposite each other, like to chess players, watching each other for the glimpse of familiarity. 

It is Daisuke who makes the first move. 

"How have you been, Hikari?"

She is slightly startled by the question, and visibly takes a moment to compose herself before she answers.

"I've been… well. Yourself?"

He frowns slightly at the obvious evasion of his own question, but then he shrugs.

"I'm alive. It always beats the alternative."

She smiles at that answer. And it is the gentle smile that has haunted Daisuke for the past six years. There is a compassion behind that smile that could topple mountains with its force.

"Somehow I knew you'd say something like that."

It is his turn to smile now. 

"How's Takeru? I must say, the kid bears a certain resemblance to him."

Hikari's face goes hard. Not out of anger, but as a mask, to hide the feelings that lurk beneath the surface. Daisuke, however, is an expert on masking his feelings. And he can recognise another mask when he sees one. 

"I'm sorry… I didn't realise…"

"How were you supposed to, Daisuke? You haven't even spoken to us in the past six years."

He flinches at that remark. Then he stands. 

"Maybe I shouldn't have come. I think we rushed in a bit to fast, after all this time."

He starts to go, but Hikari grabs a hold of his arm.

"Daisuke…"

he doesn't turn, but neither does he make a move to leave.

"Daisuke… please don't leave. I don't want you to…"

"We don't always get what we want, Hikari. I know that from bitter experience."

"And I know that you don't want to leave any more than I want you to."

"You always could read me like an open book, Hikari. So tell me what you see."

"I can see someone who's been hurt. I can tell that I'm one of the people who caused that pain, and I can see someone who has never let go of something deep inside him that told him never to give up, to always hold on to that glimmer of hope that kept him going."

She uses her free hand to cuff some angry tears from her eyes.

"And I know what it feels like, Daisuke. I know because I've been there myself, but I at least had someone to help me through it. You didn't."

Daisuke still doesn't turn, but a shudder runs through his body, and it takes a moment for Hikari to realise that he is crying.

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How can she get to me like this, even after all this time? 

How can she reduce me, after six years away from each other, to tears in a public place? Slowly, I turn to face her, to finally look deep into those brown eyes that seemed to hold so much sorrow, and yet so much passion.

I finally know how much I still love her, but now is not the time to reveal that. Instead, I kneel so that I can look straight into her face. 

There are tears in those eyes, glittering crystals that mirror my own.

"Hikari, I don't know what the future holds. I can't guarantee anything, but I would be a part of your life again. And a part of everyone's lives again."

She puts a gentle hand up to his face. And nods once. 

And finally there are no more maybes in Daisuke Motomiya's life. 

And finally two words can be written, to seal fate. 

The End. 

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(A/N)

And that's that. After two previous incarnations, finally comes a happy ending. And considering that I'm writing this at 12:48 AM, that's about as philosophical as I get. 

As I've said before please don't ask me to write any more of these. I'm not going to. It's over. 

And now, I'm hoping to hypnotise all those who read this story into reviewing, by following the magical hypnotic arrow to the little button that says "Review" on it…

You will follow the arrow…

 I

 I

 I

 I

 I

V


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